Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, speaking in Mumbai on Monday, 25 May 2026, said India's textile exports — including handicrafts — reached $33.5 billion in FY 2025-26, calling the performance 'particularly commendable' given unprecedented global headwinds and tariff disruption.

Context

Sitharaman noted that Indian exporters 'held their ground' despite a turbulent global trade environment, describing the outcome as a demonstration of the sector's resilience. She was careful, however, to frame the number not as a ceiling but as a waypoint, stating that India must 'run much faster' if it is to reclaim its historical position as a world leader in textiles.

The remarks were delivered in Mumbai, a key hub for the textile and apparel trade, and formed part of a thread of posts from her official account, identified as the second in a series.

Policy Backdrop

India's textile sector has been a sustained policy priority across successive governments. The Production Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme for textiles and apparel, notified in 2021, was designed to attract fresh investment and scale up export capacity. Separately, the Rebate of State and Central Taxes and Levies (RoSCTL) scheme has been periodically revised to neutralise embedded tax costs for exporters, keeping Indian goods price-competitive in global markets.

Both instruments sit within the broader Atmanirbhar Bharat and Make in India frameworks, which have consistently positioned textiles as an employment-intensive sector capable of absorbing large-scale manufacturing investment. Global supply-chain realignments following 2020 opened windows for India to capture market share from competing nations, a dynamic that official statements have repeatedly highlighted.

Stakeholders and Impact

The $33.5 billion figure encompasses a wide ecosystem — garment manufacturers, fabric mills, handicraft artisans and export clusters concentrated in cities such as Tiruppur, Surat and Mumbai. For these communities, export performance directly translates into employment, wages and the viability of small and medium enterprises.

Sitharaman's acknowledgement of 'tariff disruption' as a headwind signals that the global trade environment has complicated export growth, making the sector's ability to hold its ground more significant in policy terms. Handicraft exporters, often operating in informal clusters, are particularly exposed to currency fluctuations and demand shifts in Western markets.

What's Next

The Finance Minister's call to 'run much faster' points toward unfinished policy business. The long-pending National Textile Policy remains a key deliverable that the sector has awaited for several years. Observers will also watch for any new incentives in the next Union Budget, as well as progress on free-trade agreements under negotiation with the United Kingdom and the European Union — both of which could materially improve market access for Indian textile exporters.

With the Finance Minister publicly benchmarking current performance against India's historical ambition as a global textile leader, the statement sets a clear political and policy expectation ahead of the next budget cycle and ongoing trade negotiations.